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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Carrie's Embarcadero

OKay - first of all, I am VERY new to this whole blogging thing...additionally, since I have a lot of people asking me how Chester is doing on a regular basis and truth be told, I am sick of Facebook...why not start a blog...right?Brief history about Chester: I have had him since October 6, 2009, purchased him from a wonderful gal whom I now consider to be a dear friend, he just turned 9 on January 14 (but he is going on 5), Chestnut TB, 16'2 (maybe 3), blaze, 3 white legs, 4 white feet (WTF was I thinking??!!!), just started jumping about 8 months ago, has never evented in his entire life (again, WFT was I thinking?), cutest little baby face I have ever seen (see Picture...please look only at the horse and not me), has the best personality anybody could ask for and is one of the smartest horses I have ever met. His intellegence, desire to please and consistant 'light bulb' moments scare me to death and I have been known to say on numerous occasions that I am worried I won't be able to keep up with him. What is worse is that he has everyone wrapped around his little finger INSTANTLY...the bugger...it drives me bonkers...Short Term Goal: 2 or 3 Entry level events, then Pre-Training in 2010, Bromont 3-Day Event Training Level, June 2011Note - if you dont know what eventing is, look it up.

Long Term Goal: Make Chester a confident and happy Prelim horse, complete a couple CCI*s

Stretch Goal: Intermediate (IF and that is a big IF I grow the necessary parts to be able to do that.)

My coach - Joyce...I absolutely ADORE her to pieces. She is unbelieveably supportive, constructive and chanllenging. I would not be able to accomplish anything with her...AND her family. Her daughter Kelly, is my crazy eventing partner and she also has a new horse who is also new to eventing...we call them the Young Guns...and her husband Graham...who is my surrogate event father and has lent me his shoulder many times...especially at last year's championships. I could not and would not be able to do this without any of them.

My Mom and Rick - for encouraging me and supporting me...even though I know they think I am nuts! (I remember being a teenager and riding my bike to the barn (a good 40 minutes), just so I could ride 4 times a week while my mom tried to figure out how to get that same level of motivation from me to clean my room! Ha- Fat chance!

My Dad - I would not be a rider today if it wasn't for my dad and more importantly, I wouldn't own the best horse on the planet if it were not for his support.Embarcadero - My dad, lives in San Francisco. When I was thinking about show names, I wanted something unique, representative of my dad, Chester and myself. 'The Embarcadero' is the main street off which my dad lives in SF (right at the base of the Bay Bridge) and is defined as: To embark on something, to start something, especially something new, difficult and exciting.

Seems fitting...don't you think?

When I think about it, a year from now, it will be great to go back and time and see how far (hopefully!!) we have come...

More to come as we prepare for out first (schooling) show together over the next week and a half...

Colby's Debut @ Canterdown

This Is Me...

Professional by day, Amateur by night.
This blog will take you along my journey of BIG DREAMS, on a small budget, with an absolutely incredibly talented partner in crime, as we learn together what it takes to succeed in a sport that is all about who you know, how much money you have, who your sponsors are and how much your horse cost...